Expert: Dean Gade - 11/14/2005

Question
Ex 2:22   And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom....

Why was Issac the child of promise if Gershom was the first born?

Thank you,
Cann

Answer
The promise of God was through Abraham and his descendents and told of the Messiah.   This was a covenant of faith which continued through the Isaac and then to Jacob(later named Isreal).

Moses was the one through whom God made a second covenant hundreds of years later.  This was a covenant of the Law.  This second covenant did not supercede or in any way displace the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Isreal.

Gal 3:15-18

15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.   17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
(from New International Version)



Gershom had no promise from God.  Little is known of him except that his son was a priest for the Dannite tribe and that the worshipped idols.